Facebook's new app bazaar 'violates' punters' privacy – lobbyists

Facebook stands accused by a consumer lobby group of breaching Germany's privacy laws with the recent launch of its App Center.

The dominant social network has been threatened with possible legal action if it fails to respond to the Federation of German Consumer Organizations within the next seven days.

The lobby group claimed that Facebook was farming out customer information without informing its users that their data was being used, according to the Associated Press.

Facebook has until 4 September to resolve the matter, the group said, or else it could face potential legal action.

Data protection officials in Germany have been strong-arming Facebook for some time now.

Most recently, Hamburg's data protection commissioner, Dr Johannes Caspar, confirmed earlier this month that his office had reopened its probe of Facebook's facial recognition technology, complaining that the network was building a massive biometric database of its users.

The investigation had been suspended to allow time for the Irish data protection authority to conclude its talks with Facebook, whose European office is headquartered in Ireland.

That probe had included an audit of the company's data policy. Come early autumn, the Irish DP will rule on whether Facebook should face legal action under existing EU privacy laws.

The Register spoke to a Facebook spokeswoman in Germany, who declined to comment, saying only that the company is "currently looking into [sic] the letter." ®